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Colin Hung is the co-founder of the #hcldr (healthcare leadership) tweetchat one of the most popular and active healthcare social media communities on Twitter. Colin speaks, tweets and blogs regularly about healthcare, technology, marketing and leadership. He is currently an independent marketing consultant working with leading healthIT companies. Colin is a member of #TheWalkingGallery. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

The annual HIMSS conference is the “Super Bowl” of HealthIT events. No other conference brings together as many HealthIT professionals, vendors and industry media in one place. The 2018 edition of HIMSS (#HIMSS18) is being held in Las Vegas NV and over 48,000 attendees are expected. Healthcare Scene is holding a whole series of open meetups at HIMSS18 where anyone can come and participate in the discussion so we hope to see you there.

For the past 3 years I have done something fun ahead of the conference. I asked a handful of industry experts and social media friends to choose a song that best represents healthcare and HealthIT. I published the resulting playlist along with their reasons for their selection. I dubbed it (excuse the pun) the #HIMSS Mix Tape.

Why a mix tape? Three main reasons:

I’m a big comic book nerd and have been since I was a kid. In the recent Guardians of the Galaxy movies (which I’m a fan of) the hero carries around an old Sony Walkman and plays a mix tape that his mother made for him. My mix tape is a hat tip to these movies.

Playlists are so 2000s. Mix tape has an exotic sounding quality to. Honestly which headline is more intriguing: HIMSS18 Playlist or HIMSS18 Mix Tape? Plus how to do you choose a graphic of a playlist?

I have made one or two mix tapes in my day and there is a lost feeling of accomplishment you get when you painstaking cut songs together for a beach party, road-trip or for that special someone. The HIMSS Mix Tape is my attempt to re-live those youthful memories.

This year, I decided to expand the Mix Tape to two volumes. Volume 1 is filled with songs chosen by fellow HIMSS18 Social Media Ambassadors (this is my 3rd year as a HIMSS SMA). Volume 2 is full of tunes from people I have become friends with because of HIMSS.

So without further ado, the HIMSS18 Mix Tape…please enjoy responsibly.

It is an affirmation of all that has been accomplished in the last year, and a tribute to the committed professionals, advocates, and stakeholders across the Health IT industry. Their positive contributions ARE having a significant impact on the quality of healthcare access, delivery, experience, outcomes, and affordability.

What about the 3D printing technology depicted? The drawing of three-dimensional muscles and sinews. And the artificial intelligence? Creative, problem-solving, communicating artificially intelligent beings? Which (who?) begin to learn, and perhaps surpass, their human creators? I can’t think of a short stretch of music more capturing emerging health IT themes and anxieties, from 3D printing to machine learning, to bridging software vs hardware divides, to reflecting on what is human about technology and what technology means for humanity.

I chose this song as an anthem for: patients who have not been listened to; for caregivers who are suffering without support; for people + families dealing with rare diseases; for clinicians and other healthcare staff who are burned out; and for anyone who cannot get access to the care they need.

We are problems that want to be solved / We are children that need to be loved / We were willin’, we came when you called / But, man, you fooled us, enough is enough, oh

In healthcare people that live on the streets need more most care and their voice is not heard and this song just reminds me of the unseen patient. In the ED I would take care of prostitutes, IV drug users, pimps to homeless and the mentally ill that live on the streets. This song reminds me of them and the clinical staff that takes care of them.

This song sums up the dismay many of us feel with the current political situation. “I don’t know … where to begin …/ But in the end we make the same mistakes all over again/ Come on North Americans/ We are North American scum.” On the Health IT front, while there is surely progress being made, in a sense we are still making the same mistakes all over again. We could be farther along than we are towards achieving the quadruple aim if we would shed some of our chains, chief among them being the low level of interoperability enjoyed in the field.

Despite this frustration with the constant rhetoric of the past few years, I hold on to the view that there is so much to be excited about in HIT. I really want to elevate the positive action happening right now all around us. Let’s work to move the conversations forward by highlighting the positive momentum happening in HIT – the developments that are making a difference, that unite rather than separate and those that are taking courageous first steps into new territory. We know what must be done, so let’s do it. This will be a beautiful day.

I like it because this year has seen good and bad in HealthIT – we’ve seen consolidation and progress and a lot of noise and it remains to be seen what will happen in the future. Also it’s a throwback from the old days of when ai first started getting traction. The original version is from the early 80s (timing isn’t exact) and then it’s been re-done before. So this time- we have a techno remix. Time will tell if it turns out to be life changing- in the meantime we have dancing.

His song personifies our continued struggle for healthcare transformation, care coordination and usability. I am saying the same thing I’ve said for 15 years. But “I’ll stand my ground, no I won’t back down” until the healthcare paradigm changes – and improvements occur.

There are a lot of new entrants in the mix or on the horizon in healthcare and health IT these days: Amazon, Google, and Berkshire Hathaway, to name few. Industry lines are blurring every day—it’s a “perfect storm” to change things up in healthcare, and the dark horses joining the traditional race represent both the risks and opportunities of the unknown.

Healthcare and HealthIT certainly feel like there is a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde going on. The goal of healthcare is to help people, but the dark side (at least to some degree) of regulation and missed expectations take away the focus from the positive. Which side will control? That remains an open question, though the positive is always striving to stay ahead.

Probably like many people I feel like I’m in the Line of Fire [Junip]…”What you choose to believe in, Takes you as you fall, No one else around you, No one to understand you, No one to hear your calls”. In fact “This world at times will blind you, Still I know I’ll see you there” – Come a Little Closer [Cage the Elephant] but “I found my nirvana in a friend of mine” with the edgy “H” [Lawrence Rothman]. But ultimately “the world I love, the tears I drop, To be part of the wave Can’t Stop” [Red Hot Chili Peppers] and I end up with Ordinary Love – U2

The sea throws rock together / But time leaves us polished stones / We can’t fall any further / If we can’t feel ordinary love

I wanted to choose a hit song from the past year; and just kept bumping into one Ed Sheeran hit after another. While I love his heart tugging melodies, I am going with another popular hit. Despacito means “Slowly”; and that essentially is how I feel we’re making, and will continue to make, progress in health IT. Getting health IT “right” needs to be a dance – rhythmic, upbeat, fun, purposeful and passionate. Yup, flip Despacito on and turn that bass up please!

I am attending HIMSS this year on mission to find out how tech can better facilitate interdisciplinary care. Looking forward to the knocking down silo theme of this song. “Do you really think I care, What you eat or what you wear…Won’t you join together with the band

Given the new administration in the US, we don’t really now all that’s going to happen. We have a good feel for what the current administration would like to have happen…but no one will actually know until after mid-term elections. And whatever will happen will impact all of healthcare.

There’s a lot of craziness in the world including in healthcare IT, but it’s gonna be ok. With all the bad in the world, there’s also a ton of good things and good people that just don’t get the recognition they deserve.

Because 2018 is a year of exciting beginnings for me. While fear is unavoidable in the face of true challenge, I feel in charge of my destiny. I also have this amazing Health IT community whistling along with me as our journeys merge and build from each other.

It’s my favorite movie right now. I’ve seen it twice and will likely see it a third time in the theater. The movie – and song – leave you feeling so empowered. Definitely resonates with the #healthITchicks community right now!

HealthIT is very much still out on the highway, looking for adventure! Many opportunities and sights to see as we find and amplify the best we find. Truly HealthIT is born to be wild and flying high – it’s up to us to keep collaborating and bring healthcare into the future!

As patients start demanding better experiences in healthcare like telemedicine, online record access, integration and collaboration between care team members, they have started saying NO when they don’t get what they want as informed consumers. My name is-NO! My address is-NO, my number is-NO, you should already know! Girl. if that facility doesn’t give you what you need, blah blah blah, just be like nah to the ah to the no, no no!

In order to infuse some much-needed chill reggae vibes into a chaotic HIMSS week, I thought “As Crazy As It Is” is a fitting choice. Most people in Health IT feel the red tape, long sales cycles, and integration hurdles make them “crazy” yet they stick around and could never abandon the frustrating yet fulfilling industry.

I chose Despacito – because innovation and technology development and deployment happen very despacito (slowly!). I also chose it to bring a bit of fun flair into the HIMSS scene – and bring some Spanish-speaking & Latino/a culture, which in my experience is severely underrepresented among healthcare and technology leadership.

Welcome to the new age / Welcome to the new age / This is it… The Apocalypse

I like this song because it captures the tension I see in the Health IT space – and the divergent perspectives about Health IT. It is definitely a new age. But is it the Apocalypse? Is the future bleak or bright? Will IT enrich the work life of the physician or enslave them? Will IT free providers to spend more time with patients or disconnect them? This is the tension that this song evokes for me.

It’s a reminder of our (health IT) youth, when we were invincible (and unicorns were everywhere). That was a heady feeling, and it gave us the inspiration and momentum to carry us through our rocky adolescence. Now that we’re older and wiser, we can find new – perhaps more effective and widely adopted – ways to be heroes…

Every year, I spend the year, trying to find synergy w/ vendors, whose product disappoints me on delivery. Prior to HIMSS, they usually beg, promote, and insists we get together. I’ve said it before; I’m still looking to be impressed.